Baby Grands: Rurouni Kenshin Edition
by Serenitychan13
Summary: A collection of 10 stand-alone ficlets, each 1000 words long. Coming up third, a cherry blossom in Tokyo ends with a fireworks show, and Kenshin and Kaoru need to find a spot to watch them. Rating will go up in later chapters.
1. Hope

_**Disclaimer:**_ **Guess what! I don't own Rurouni Kenshin! I've got most of the manga, most of the anime, a Sano plushie, and several questionable thoughts, but the rights aren't mine.**

_**A Brief Author's Note: **_**Here, we have the first fic in the LJ 10_prompts community's Table and the start of a new series of Baby Grands. If you haven't read my Repo! The Genetic Opera, Sanctuary, Alice In Wonderland 2010, or Sailor Moon fics of these titles, let me explain. A thousand is sometimes colloquially referred to as a "grand". The "baby" bit comes from the term "ficlet," which just brings to mind the image of baby fanfics.**

1 - Hope

"Be back soon, Misao-chan!" called Omasu. "It's getting dark earlier these days!"

"I know, I know!" She waved and took off, carefully juggling the cloth bag's contents. "I will!"

Aoshi had been at the temple every day, almost all day, for over a year now. Everyone understood and mostly left him alone. But every evening, Misao took two bento boxes out to the temple – one for her, and one for her Aoshi-sama. It never happened, but she hoped that one day, he would come out of the temple's sanctuary and eat his bento with her. For the past year, she had eaten her dinner alone, sitting on the hard stone steps. Every evening, instead of diminishing, her hope grew.

_Maybe he'll be better tonight, _she thought, dodging people in the Kyoto streets.

It never occurred to her that, realistically, Aoshi-sama _never _got better. If she wanted to maintain her optimism but keep to reality, she could think that at least he never got worse… But he never addressed her, usually didn't make eye contact, and he simply ate his bento in mechanical silence. In her sorrier moments, she wondered if he could even taste food anymore. His expression never changed from that same cold stare.

No, wait, she told herself – something _had _changed! She remembered what it was like, watching the three of them come dragging themselves back. Aoshi-sama, Kenshin-san, and Sanosuke-no-baka… they had all survived Mount Hiei and Kenshin-san had kept his promise. Looking back, it probably wasn't the best choice to flying-tackle him after an experience like that, but he hadn't protested, had he? It never occurred to her that he might have simply been too tired, too out of it to do much. But the fact that he came home at all gave her hope. He could just have easily have left the wreckage and disappeared once again into the countryside of Japan.

But he didn't.

She could see the temple in the not-so-far distance. Shouldn't be long now, not with the crowds of Kyoto starting to thin out. A young fellow in hakama and a Western shirt came out and began to light the few-and-far-between gas lamps, a newsboy cap obscuring his face. Misao smiled brightly at him and waved her free hand, which he returned. The gas lamp flickered once, twice, and then blinked merrily to life. A breeze started up, carrying the scent of mid-fall to her nose. Maybe she should've grabbed a jacket before she headed out…

Her braid needed a good toss to go back over her shoulder after the breeze picked up into a light wind. Misao held the bag with the two bento boxes in it closer to her chest. The dinners inside were still warm and she'd be damned if they weren't that way when she arrived at the temple. Combined scents of miso-rolled shrimp tempura and hot soba with wakame, shoyu, and ginger tickled her nose. Aoshi-sama had loved chewing on a small slice of raw ginger back a long time ago. Ever since, she had associated the smell of ginger, raw or otherwise, with him.

"Oh come on!" she growled under her breath. "Excuse me obaa-san!"

There was a little old lady in front of her, walking as slowly as it might have been humanly possible to go without going backwards! On the left was a guy packing up his sushi stand for the night and the right sidewalk had clogged with a sudden out-flushing of people from the restaurants. Misao found herself stuck… and she _hated _being stuck.

"Obaa-san?" she asked again, contemplating just poking the old lady. "Excuse me, please, obaa-san?"

The lady seemed not only to be slow, but deaf.

"Come on, lady!" Misao grumbled as quietly as she could.

Finally, an eternity later, the lady veered off to putter down a side street.

"Finally!" Misao yelled without being able to stop herself, but she remained oblivious of stares from passerby as she picked up her stride and continued down the street. "Don't worry, Aoshi-sama, I promise I'll be there soon!"

Yes, she talked to herself out loud. Traveling alone through the countryside tended to do that to a young lady's mind. If anyone paid her any attention, she didn't care. The wind picked up a little bit and she wished a bit more that she had taken a jacket. Bare arms were fine during the day, but now that it was almost totally dark, she felt uncomfortably chilled. But in a few minutes, during which she almost picked up to a run, she found herself on the temple's gray stone steps.

This time, she didn't want to eat outside – too cold. The shrine master didn't mind Aoshi eating inside, so he shouldn't mind her either, she decided. So she found a bench and plunked down. Nobody ever bothered loose articles in the temple, so she set down the dinners and hurried off to find Aoshi. He might wonder what had taken her so long… she hoped.

She found him, still sitting in the sanctuary and staring at the shrine in front of him with an empty look on his face.

"Aoshi-sama?" she prompted like she did every night, for some reason reluctant to look at him – she always felt intrusive when it came to this part. "Aoshi-sama, I brought you dinner!"

"Konbanwa, Misao-chan," he replied.

Misao's ankle turned and she fell, un-ninja-like, on her backside.

"What?"

"I could smell the ginger," he told her, seeming not to notice her sudden tumble. "It's… been a while."

Misao looked up at him with a strange smile – one halfway between disbelief and ever-present hope.

"Yeah… Okina's taken up gardening now that he's really getting better! Says the last time he pulled ginger out of the ground, he was handsomer than you are!"

She stopped laughing and schooled her features – Aoshi had actually turned his head to look at her!

"Really…" he stated more than asked. "I would have liked to see that."

Misao stared in hope.


	2. Darkness

_**Disclaimer:**_ **Ain't mine! Don't really have time to do a disclaimer right now, so if it sucks, don't sue. Now read!**

_**A Brief Author's Note: **_**Table 5 of LJ's ten-prompt series continues with number 2! I'd tell you a bit more, but I have to run to piano class!**

2 - Darkness

Misao couldn't sleep that night. Matter of fact, she hadn't slept all the way through a night in several. The waning, and now new moon, seemed to be affecting her in ways they didn't normally. She hadn't been afraid of the dark since she was very small. This angered her – the Aoiya had been successfully put back together, Jiiya was up and about, and they'd gotten everything running basically smoothly! There was no reason that she should be staying up nights anymore! She smacked the shoji closed, heard a grunt from another room, and flung herself back down on her futon.

But she had been having nightmares when she tried to sleep. A blind man… The smell of sulfur and the shouts of a panicking Kyoto… Shining metal out the corner of her eye… Where had the monk come from? And why had he stopped the man wearing the shell? As these thoughts spun through her head, she could see Hannya's face floating in front of her again. Whether asleep or awake, she didn't care – a hand stretched out towards her old friend.

"Hannya?" she asked, still trying to reach for her. "Hannya, is that you?"

He faded away before her eyes. Misao cried for him – she wanted her friend back! But then she could see Shikijou, his big muscular grin… But why? Had Himura-san lied to her? Surely if he had, he hadn't meant to! He wasn't that kind of person! Shikijou reached out to pick her up as he had when she was still a small child. Of course, Misao reached back! But he faded away as well.

"Shikijou! Hannya!" she had started to cry, kicking at her blankets in the sticky, hot room. If she had thought right, she wouldn't have shut that panel. "Where did you go! Come back!"

Someone else had been sleeping rather light at the Aoiya as well. While Aoshi had enough training to control what would have been nightmares, his sleep had not been easy. Slight noises awakened him, and sometimes his blankets itched. He found it hard to find a comfortable way to sleep. Tonight, he had finally been able to get to sleep at a decent hour and had stayed asleep thus far. But something in the Aoiya had grown loud enough to awaken him. Whatever that something might be, he intended to get up and kill it, and then go back to bed.

Misao turned over in her sleep, tangling her legs in sweat-soaked blankets. She swiped at the hair stuck to her face ineffectually. All four of her friends kept appearing and fading away in front of her and there she sat, unable to reach out or communicate with them. Her jaw had gone a bit slack and she tried to kick off the oppressive blankets in her restless sleep. A soft almost-wail pushed out on her next breath, turning muffled as she pressed her face unconsciously into her pillow.

Grinding his teeth, Aoshi stalked along the halls of the Aoiya with a small dagger in hand. Surely no one was stupid enough to disturb this place in the middle of the night and make that much noise! This had promised to be his first restful night of sleep in weeks. For a moment, he looked almost as wild and unhinged as he had wandering the Japanese forests after the deaths of his friends. Narrowing his eyes, he continued his search for the source of the noise. It actually seemed to be coming from somewhere deeper within the Aoiya.

Now she could see all four of her friends again. They were so close she could have touched them, but as soon as she refocused, she wished they weren't. She wished she had never met Himura all of a sudden. A sick, horrible feeling crept up the back of her throat. Their flat, gray eyes stared back at her. Bullet wounds spilled a disgusting amber liquid. All of them lay still in a black room. Misao couldn't look away –she wanted to run, but she couldn't leave them! What was she supposed to do!

She didn't realize how she screamed in her sleep!

Aoshi heard the screaming. Yes, that was definitely screaming. He turned sharply on his heel and headed in the direction the sound. Briefly, he noticed that it seemed to be coming from the ladies' section of the house. It sounded like Misao. He sped up. If someone had broken into the ladies' hall, they would leave in pieces – he swore it. He would not have the Oniwabanshuu destroyed again! Did he realize he was probably overestimating the problem? Maybe – but he couldn't risk it.

The screaming had started to subside, but he could still hear softer vocalizations. Yes, Misao… she hadn't screamed in her sleep like that since immediately after her parents died. He must not have slept for months when she had first been placed in his care. He stopped at her door and, in case it turned out to be nothing at all, knocked twice and heard nothing.

"Misao?" he asked the closed shoji panel. "Is everything all right?"

Again, he got no response - he said quietly that he was coming in and nudged the panel aside with one hand, looking away for a moment in case she wasn't decent.

"Misao…"

She wasn't. But at the moment, propriety had to take a back seat. He knelt beside her and tried once more to wake her. No, she couldn't hear him. He heard her calling their friends' names. She stretched out her arms – yes, he remembered this from her childhood nightmares. Slowly, out of old habit, he reached out to her. Their fingertips touched for a moment, and then he gathered her flailing limbs and held her close. She continued crying, but her voice softened. He stroked her hair, smelling the familiar scent.

"It's all right, Misao," he told her, reaching over to turn out the light she left on. "I miss them too…"


	3. Celestial

_**Disclaimer:**_ **I don't own Rurouni Kenshin. Never have, and in all likelihood never will. If it is gifted to me somehow, I will gladly take it! But for now, it's not mine. Don't sue.**

_**A Brief Author's Note: **_**The third in LJ 10_prompts Table 5. I'm really enjoying writing these little 1000-word ficlets! What are my lovelies thinking about them? I'd really appreciate some reviews – they're writer-chow!**

3 - Celestial

Spring always announced itself with a great spray of pink flowers over all the skinny trees. Tokyo's cherry blossom festival never left a thing to be desired. The ladies could shop and gossip, the men could play games and have a drink or two, and the children ran through the streets in amiable disorder. Things ran sedately enough during daylight hours, but Japan's new Capitol really came alive at night. Everyone got to stay up past their bedtime, all waiting for the event of the night – the fireworks.

Yahiko had disappeared as soon as the Kenshin-gumi arrived at the festival. He said he just wanted to meet some friends, but everyone knew he wanted to impress Tsubame by winning a few games. Megumi had promised Dr. Gensai that she would help arrange a first-aid booth, something always needed when big groups of people crammed into smaller spaces. So off she went with Ayame and Suzume hanging off her hands and chattering. Sanosuke disappeared with a lame excuse, basically announcing that he had an illegal gambling session to find. Kaoru found herself, as she so rarely did, alone with Kenshin.

"It's warmer than usual, that it is," Kenshin commented in his usual off-hand way. "It's very nice."

Kaoru startled a bit, as she normally did when Kenshin broke the silence.

"Oh! Yes it is," she agreed, feeling rather stupid. "I'm glad to see you decided to come with us, Kenshin."

She didn't want to mention how she knew that the cherry blossoms brought back such painful memories for him. And now, now that she thought about it, they made her feel sort of funny too. They had just started scattering in the early summer when Kenshin… left. She looked up at the dozens of blooming pink trees around them, full and pretty. Then, as she so often did, she felt him looking at her.

"It's nice to make new memories to go with the cherry blossoms," he told her. Kaoru often wondered if he could read her mind as easily as he could read an enemy's chi. Then Kenshin spoke again, still in that faraway voice he had sometimes. "It's true that they don't make the old ones go away, that they do not, but I would much rather think on these new memories than the old ones!"

Kaoru looked away from the trees to see him smiling at her, that great big rurouni smile that she had finally admitted to herself she loved so much. Then he looked away, to where she had been gazing at the cherry blossoms. Kaoru unconsciously moved closer to him as a spring breeze tossed a chill into the air around them. She smiled as if she were once again a very young girl. She was nearing twenty years old, but Kenshin made her feel as close to ageless as any human could get. He had seen so very much, should have aged so young, but he seemed to give youth to all around him.

"It's almost time for the fireworks, Kenshin," she told him, trying to break what seemed like a pane of glass tension between them.

"Mm," he affirmed. "We should go find a place to watch them and see if the others join us, that we should."

"I think they're shooting them by the river this year," Kaoru informed him by way of agreement. "We should head that way!"

Kenshin seemed content to follow her as she started to wend her way through the crowds. A few people seemed to have had the same idea, but most people still milled about through shops and food stalls. All in all, it took about twenty minutes for Kenshin and Kaoru to make it to the river. It was already just a little bit crowded, but not to the point that all the good spots were taken. Kaoru took a quick look around, and then guided Kenshin over to a place on a tiny hillock with a smaller cherry tree atop it.

"You've found a very good place to watch the fireworks, Miss Kaoru – that you most certainly have!" Kenshin told her, that same big rurouni smile in place. "It'll be easy for Sanosuke and the others to find us here."

Kaoru smiled and, after a few minor wardrobe adjustments, leaned back against the smallish cherry blossom tree. Kenshin settled in as well and the two of them spent a moment watching the stars in companionable silence. The little sparkles up in the sky twinkled down at them, Orion in particular standing out in proud glory. Kaoru sneaked a glance at Kenshin. For once, he looked completely peaceful, none of his past demons troubling him at the moment.

"There they are!" hollered Yahiko's voice, breaking the silence. "Sanosuke, Megumi, they're over there!"

Kaoru seethed, but pasted on a smile and waved a hand. The whole of the Kenshin-gumi: Yahiko, joined by Tsubame, Dr. Gensai with Ayame and Suzume, and Megumi, headed in their direction. The two little girls ran ahead and flung themselves on Kenshin. Ayame settled down in his lap as he let Suzume perch on his shoulders. Dr. Gensai, with a bit of difficulty, settled on a soft patch of moss. Sano just flopped on the ground, both arms behind his head. Megumi, narrowing her eyes in derision at the street fighter, slid elegantly to her knees and carefully tucked her feet out of sight.

_HISS! POP! BOOM! _

The fireworks had started. Blues, greens, reds, oranges, and brilliant whites flashed across the sky. Some of them trailed sparks behind them. The biggest ones simply exploded with a thunderous roar, scattering colors in smoky, concentric circles. Ayame and Suzume cheered. The louder ones made Tsubame flinch. With a smug look, Yahiko slid an arm around her shoulders. Sanosuke looked at the two and snickered, earning a pop on the head from Megumi. Dr. Gensai had started to snore.

Kenshin and Kaoru though, paid very little attention, looking up at the sky, hand in hand.


End file.
